Last Updated on: 19th April 2021, 06:08 pm
The Covid-19 vaccination could be made mandatory for care home staff in England to protect the elderly from serious illness due to this dangerous infection.
A Government consultation launched on Wednesday to seek the views of the public on making covid-19 vaccination a condition of work for care home staff.
A spokesperson for the Government has claimed that making the Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for care home staff would help to further protect elderly people living in care homes.
“Older people living in care homes are most at risk of suffering serious consequences from Covid-19 and other infectious diseases. They have even more reason to see their health as something that matters to them just like other members of the NHS when it comes to who they trust with their own health.”
“Making vaccines a condition of deployment is something many care home staff have called for, to help them provide greater protection for staff and residents in care homes and so save lives.”
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies has said that 80% of care home staff and 90% of residents must be vaccinated to provide a minimum level of protection against outbreaks.
At present, 53 percent of older adult homes in the country are meeting the threshold that will ensure best practices in infection control.
Mr. Hancock said: “The Covid-19 vaccine is already preventing deaths and is our route out of this pandemic. We have a duty of care to those most vulnerable to the virus, so it is right we consider all options to keep people safe.”
Despite claims that the new vaccine has not been fully trialed, there is positivity from Cumbria’s public health director Colin Cox yesterday at Cumbria County Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board on the use of the Covid-19 vaccine to combat flu.
He said: “I’m very pleased to say that as of April 12, we have no active outbreaks in Cumbria. This feels like a bit of a red-letter day that we hit that milestone because that’s the first time in more than a year that there have been no active outbreaks in Cumbria.
The vaccination program has been going extremely well across the country as a whole and in Cumbria in particular.
Over 96 percent of people in care homes have received a flu jab or are waiting for one.
Covid-19 vaccine care home staff vaccination program, this month there has been a supply reduction of vaccine coming into the country as a whole, that has impacted on Cumbria as you would expect. So there has been a significant slow down this month on the delivery of first vaccines.